Sunday, August 19, 2007

Queens Machine blames overdevelopment!

At a recent Community Board 5 meeting, District Manager Gary Giordano and state Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale) said flooding caused by the rainstorm was the worst they had seen in the area.

Giordano said over-development in the area may exacerbate flooding during rainstorms, citing one resident who recently spotted concrete leaking into a catch basin from a construction site. He said the city should consistently clean out local basins and sewers to help prevent overflowing.

"I would not doubt that over-development contributes to worse conditions when it rains hard," he said. "And, in some cases, I think the city needs bigger sewer lines. There are a heck of a lot more people living here than when the lines were built."

"To say the least, the pipes and sewers are inadequate for the development that is taking place in the city," [Maltese] said. "Cleaning and inspecting them will no longer do the trick."

Rep. Joseph Crowley last Wednesday initiated automated calling to people announcing that he "cares and is here for" us. He's sending FEMA around to survey the flooding. Joey, you're a week late. But hey folks, there's still time to sue the city!

Pictured: Clueless Joe and the Doorman try to figure out how a chain link gate failed to keep the water out in Woodside. Photo from the Queens Gazette

DEP agrees with the assessment:

"When the sewers were built, they were built with the expectation that there wouldn't be the level of development that is there now," said DEP spokesman Michael Saucier.

It is time to determine whether the persistent flooding of certain sections of Queens is simply due to extreme acts by Mother Nature or if the city's infrastructure is, in part, to blame," Crowley declared.

He said this was why he and his colleagues were calling on Comptroller Thompson to spearhead the investigation into the possible causes of the local flooding.

[Assemblywoman Marge] Markey (D- Maspeth) said that last Wednesday was the second time this season her district had been struck.

She stated, "I believe that overdevelopment, combined with antiquated sewer lines and clogged catch basins are contributing factors to the flooding. Until something is done about it my constituents will have flooded basements after each heavy rain we have."

WOW! Can you imagine that? Why did you a-holes encourage the overdevelopment of Queens in the first place? Why do community boards constantly vote in favor of developer variances? Nice try, you guys, to lay the blame on someone - or something - other than yourselves. To quote Drinking with Bob:

You want the sewers in Queens to be built to handle huge storms? OK -- but don't whine when the billions of dollars it costs to do so is passed down to you through large water and sewer bill increases.

Face it folks, sewers can't always handle every storm. And they're not cheap. Water rates went up 11 percent this year and are supposed to go up 11 percent next year and the year after. It makes people feel better to complain, but the fact is the City in many cases would be better off just living with the sewer system it has now, as opposed to jacking up water rates even more to pay for improvements that would only be used a few times a year at most.

You don't need sewers to handle huge storms. You need them to handle 2-3 inches of rain. That is basic and will save millions of dollars in property damage. We have a surplus and our taxes will go up anyway. So just fix it already!

The phrase "2-3 inches of rain" is meaningless unless you state a time period. If you mean 2-3 inches of rain over 24 hours, then yes, it's not a huge storm. But the incident in question was 2-3 inches of rain in less than one hour. And that IS a huge storm -- something that typically happens only once or twice a year, if even that often.

Think about what it would take to actually make the sewers larger. You're talking about billions of dollars (say hello to huge water bill increases) and decades of construction (say hello to the jackhammers that will be ripping up your neighborhood for years at a time, to the dust you'll be breathing, to the noise you'll be hearing, to the local businesses that will suffer, and to the detours you'll be driving on).

And all that expense and hassle just to avoid maybe one flood per year. MAYBE, because even larger sewers won't be able to handle every storm. You can decrease the number of floods but you can't eliminate them entirely.

BTW, don't forget all the other water and sewer work that will be deferred while the city spends all its time and money building bigger sewers. Now, is it really worth it?

"You're talking about billions of dollars (say hello to huge water bill increases) and decades of construction (say hello to the jackhammers that will be ripping up your neighborhood for years at a time, to the dust you'll be breathing, to the noise you'll be hearing, to the local businesses that will suffer, and to the detours you'll be driving on)."

This is happening whether they replace the sewers or not. So I say replace them!

So you want even bigger water rate increases just to eliminate maybe one flood per year? Fine, you can pay for them.

Did I forget to mention the increased maintenance costs that go along with bigger sewers? The City shouldn't lay out public money for a Rolls Royce sewer system when a Chevy system works fine 99.6% of the time.

The existing sewer system generally worked pretty well, except in neighborhoods like Laurelton,before all this mega development made them obsolete.

If you've got to put in new larger capacitysewer systems then the increased cost for doing so should be passed along to the developerswho are doing all this new building......and not even a penny increase in water & sewer taxes to the pre-existing older homes.

Oh, so Maltese, Markey and Giordano are really upset about all the overdevelopment leading to flooding? So why haven't they been actively pressing for city planning to complete the downzoning of these neighborhoods? Why have they allowed the plan to stagnate in John Young's office for the past year and a half? We already know why Katz and Pinky don't want the area downzoned.

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